Improvement in machinery for breaking and cleaning hemp and flax



SANFORD & MALLORY.

Flax and Hemp Brake.

No. 35,710. Patented June 24, 1862.

UNITED STATES PATENT @Ti iciso GELSTON SANFORD AND JAMES E. MALLORY, OFNEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING AND CLEANING HEMP AND FLAX.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 35.710, dated June 24,1862.

T 0 or whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GELSTON SANFORD and JAMES E. MALLORY, both of thecity, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in the Machine for Breaking and Cleaning Flax, Hemp,and other like Fiber-Yielding Plants; and we do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, making part of thisspecification in which- Figure 1 is a plan; Fig. 2, a side elevation,and Fig.3 a longitudinal vertical section taken at the line A a of Fig.1.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

The object of our said invention is the more effectually to break thewoody part of the flax, hemp, and other like fiber-yielding plants andseparate the fibers therefrom.

In the accompanying drawings, a represents a suitable frame, andb btwobars, the adjacent faces of which are fluted longitudinally, the flutesfrom the upper to the lower edge being made gradually smaller, for apurpose to be presently described. The ends of the said bars are fittedto slide in longitudinal ways 0 c in the sides of the frame. The outerface of the barb is connected, by suitable connectingrods, d d,withcranks on the crank-shaft e, which is to be driven by any suitablemotor, to give to the said bar a rapid reciprocating motion toward andfrom the other bar, I), which is capable of yielding to the violence ofthe blows and the varying thickness of the material operated upon bymeans of springsf f, placed behind its ends in the ways 0 c. The saidsprings ff are secured in any suitable manner to the ends of the flutedbar I) and to a third bar, g, the ends of which are also fitted to slidein the ways 0 0, and the rear face of this bar g is connected totoggle-joint levers h h, and these in turn are connected-by rods 1 t toaspringtreadle, 9'. By means of this arrangement, when the operatorlifts his foot from the treadle, the bar 9 with the springs ff, and thefluted bar b attached to them, are drawn back to admit of readilyintroducing the flaX or other material to be operated upon, and then, bydepressing the treadle, the bars 9 and b are pushed forward to therequired position for the breaking op eration.

Just below the lower edge of the breaking bars I) b there is a rod, 7;,on the upper ends of two arms, Z Z, projecting up from a bar, m, theends of which slide in horizontal ways a a, parallel with and below theways 0 0, before described, and the ends of the said bar or projectoutside of the frame, and are there at tached to springs 0 0, thetension of which draws it and the rod is in the direction of the arrow.

On each end of the fluted bar b there is hinged a spring-catch, 1), solocated that when the fluted bar I) reaches the end of its motion towardthe yielding bar b,the said catches take hold of the projecting ends ofthe bar m, and by the return motion draw it and the rod it forward,distending the springs 0 0, and be fore the fluted bar breaches the endof its back movement the springcatches strike a stop, q, on the frame toliberate the bar m, which is instantly drawn in the direction of thearrow by the tension of its springs. The crank-shaft being set in motionand the bar b drawn back by the spring under the treadle, the operatorintroduces a bunch of flax or other fiber-yielding plant between the twobars Z) 6, and by depressing the treadle pushes the fluted bar 1)forward to its proper position, so that by the reciprocating motion ofthe fluted barb the flax or other plant is broken between the flutedfaces of the two bars, and as this progresses the attendant permits thebunch of material to descend gradually between the two bars. So soon asthe lower ends of the broken fibers descend below the fluted bars they(the fibers) receive a whipping or jarring action from the rod k, whichstrikes them at or nearly at right angles to their length, which actionhas the effect of knocking out the broken woody and other foreignfragments, an operation which is effectual, and which has less tendencyto injure the fibers than what is known as the scntching operation. Asbefore stated, the flutes on the bars b b are gradually finer from theupper to the lower edge. The object of this is to gradually break thewoody parts of the plant without undue strain on the fibers. WVhen theflutes are all of an equal size, if made small to effectually reduce thewoody parts of the plants, so as to insure a thorough separation fromthe fibers, the strain onthe fibers is so great as seriously to injureand often break them, and if the flutes be made large to avoid thisstrain on the fibers, then the woody parts are broken into pieces solong that they remain attached to the fibers, and can only be separatedby a violent and longcontinued scutching operation,whieh is known to beseriously injurious to the fibers. This dilfi'culty is avoided by makingthe flutes large at the upper part of the bars and gradually finertoward the lower edge, so that at the up per edge,where they first acton the plant, they can be made so large as to break the woody parts intolong pieces without serious strain to the fibers, and then these aregradually reduced in length as they pass down between the finer-flutes.In this way the woody and other frangible parts of the plant areeffectually reduced and detached from and without undue strain upon thefibers, so that they can be knocked out by the jarring or whippingaction of the reciprocating rod 7c, and without the necessity of thescutching operation.

GELSTON SANFORD. JAS. E. MALLORY.

W'itnesses:

A. DE LACY, PETER COOKE.

